Every day, some 13,300 children under age 5 die. Most perish from causes we know how to prevent. Every day, more than 1½ million children and nearly 5 million adults wake up trapped in commercial sexual exploitation. Every day, another 21 million are put to forced labor, 645 million people go hungry, and more than 800 million live on less than $3 a day. Last year, war and armed conflict killed some 670 people a day, and nearly 15,000 more were driven across a border, fleeing for safety.

Each of us tends to fixate on our own wants, concerns and troubles. We forget the pervasive poverty and famine, sickness and disease, injustice and abuse, deceit and betrayal, corruption and fraud, tyranny and oppression, rivalry and war that plague people all around the world.

When we do tear ourselves away from our own lives for a moment and wake up to one of these monumental injustices, some of our leaders attempt, or at least promise, to solve them. But time after time, these efforts prove to be bitter illusions.

But these crises will be solved.

The Bible is nothing less than the inspired Word of mankind’s Creator (2 Timothy 3:16). It can be relied on. And it is filled with hope. In it, God acknowledges the suffering, even imposes certain suffering—yet He repeatedly promises to punish evil, correct injustice, relieve oppression, free captives, heal the sick, dry tears, and establish righteous rule. And God cannot lie (Titus 1:2).

God will do these things. The question is when. And the Bible’s answer is, when Jesus Christ returns to Earth to establish God’s Kingdom—a literal government that overthrows and replaces the governments of man.

The world today is governed by “the god of this world,” Satan the devil, who “deceiveth the whole world” (2 Corinthians 4:4; Revelation 12:9), and is cut off from God (e.g. Genesis 3:22-24; Isaiah 59:2; Ephesians 2:12). That is why there is such rampant suffering. It will remain Satan’s world until Christ returns.

This world needs God’s Kingdom so desperately! Thank God He has promised to bring it—and His promises are sure.

Do you believe your Bible?

So much of the Bible concerns Jesus Christ’s return. Yet even most self-professing Christians live as if His return is either a myth or destined to occur in the distant future.

It is just as the Apostle Peter prophesied about our time: “Above all, you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires. They will say, ‘Where is this “coming” he promised? Ever since our ancestors died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation’” (2 Peter 3:3-4; New International Version). Even most true Christians have grown weary of waiting and now treat Christ’s Second Coming casually.

You must take Christ’s promise to return seriously! God has not changed His plans. Christ’s return remains on schedule—God’s schedule.

How can you know? By studying your Bible—and believing it. God’s Word is the foundation of our faith (Romans 10:17). Studying Christ’s return in God’s Word builds your faith. This is an article you cannot read straight through. You must get your Bible and read with your own eyes the glorious promises—here we will only cover a fraction of them—that God has given about this imminent event.

Old Testament Promises

One reason we can have confidence in the Bible’s promises of the Second Coming is the accuracy of its prophecies of Christ’s first coming.

The Old Testament is full of promises about the Messiah coming to Earth. Depending on the commentator making the count, Old Testament verses prophesying of Christ’s first coming or Second Coming range from several dozen on the conservative end to nearly 600!

More than 100 prophecies foretold details about Jesus’s first coming, including such specific facts as that He would heal the blind, lame and deaf; that He would be rejected by His own people; that He would be betrayed for 30 pieces of silver that were later used to buy a potter’s field; that His garments would be divided among others; that His hands and feet would be pierced; that none of His bones would be broken. All these were fulfilled precisely. God kept all those promises and prophecies—and He will keep those regarding the Second Coming.

The book of Psalms is replete with references and prophecies regarding Christ’s coming. Read Psalm 2 about a change in government from the kings of the Earth today. Verse 7 prophesies of Christ’s physical birth, and verse 8 describes Him inheriting “the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession.” Verse 9 describes Him breaking the nations with a rod of iron, which certainly did not happen at His first coming. Christ is coming as a conqueror and a king! “Be wise now therefore, O ye kings: be instructed, ye judges of the earth” (verse 10). God is putting them on notice!

Read Psalm 98, a celebration of Christ’s return. For 6,000 years, God has hidden Himself from mankind. But in that day, He will openly show His righteousness! (verse 2). All nations will see God. This psalm describes Christ’s coronation and the establishment of God’s government on Earth.

Study the prophetic vision in Psalm 110. Verses 1-2 relate a vision David saw of God the Father speaking to the God who later became Jesus Christ and anticipating the moment when He will command His Son to return to Earth in the midst of His enemies and rule the entire world! Verse 3 speaks of “the day you lead your host” (Revised Standard Version), picturing Christ’s descent from heaven with His armies and accompanied by “your people,” meaning true Christians.

Read the sobering prophecy of verses 5-6. Other biblical prophecies show that the nations will have been killing each other by the millions in the Great Tribulation when they encounter this dramatic event. They will resist Jesus Christ as He comes to assume rulership over the world. And He will respond with overwhelming force. This shows the power it will take to defeat Satan and the people he deceives and inspires!

Read the result in verse 7: Christ will emerge as the conquering king, refreshing Himself after battle, lifting up His head, glorying in the victory by which He will begin establishing a far better world, the Kingdom of God, a literal kingdom, here on Earth.

Again, the fact that Christ did not replace Satan as ruler of Earth when He came the first time is evident by this wretched world plunging into its terminal phase of inestimable poverty, hunger, slavery, rape and murder day after day. The devil remains “the prince of this world” (John 12:31; 14:30). The Bible prophesies dozens of times, however, that Christ will return to replace Satan and will completely conquer him and his forces. Christ will then assume His rightful position as King of kings.

Promises in the Prophets

The Old Testament prophets wrote expansively about Christ’s return and the world He will set up. Consider just a few examples.

Read Isaiah’s prophecy about “the last days” in Isaiah 2:1-5. Now read verses 10-21 for even more detail. These events definitely have not yet occurred. Verse 12 describes the “day of the Lord.” Notice that this is a day of warfare—of God correcting the nations. God also mentions this “day of the Lord” in Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Joel (five times), Amos, Obadiah, Zephaniah, Zechariah and Malachi. The Messiah who returns on this day is much different in power and glory from the human teacher of Christ’s first coming—and entirely opposite of the weak, effeminate, far-distant one that most Christians believe in.

Consider the prophecy about Jesus Christ in Isaiah 9:6-7. What does this teach us about the coming of the Kingdom of God? This is one of the most spectacular prophecies of Christ’s Second Coming and rule. This states that the government shall be on His shoulder. The government of all peoples and nations of the Earth is not yet on His shoulder. He is not yet recognized and worshiped around the globe. He has not yet acceded to the throne of David and established His everlasting, ever increasing worldwide governance of the entire Earth. Satan still rules. But God is zealous for and eagerly anticipating the day He will give that throne to His Son, who will implement the solution to all the suffering: the Kingdom of God.

Read Daniel 2, about the dream God gave Babylonian emperor Nebuchadnezzar. Study verses 40-45 to grasp the lesson it holds. Nebuchadnezzar ruled the known world. The fearsome statue he saw in the dream God gave him represented a sequence of future world-ruling empires: Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greco-Macedonia and Rome. Then notice: A fifth kingdom appeared, totally unlike the previous four and incomparably mightier. This shows that the Kingdom of God, ruled by Jesus Christ, is just as real and just as literal as those physical political empires—and far more powerful!

This is just a small sampling of the Old Testament prophecies of the Second Coming of Jesus Christ to establish the literal Kingdom of God for the purpose of taking over all political, religious and other forms of power from the governments of this world.

The Jews of Jesus’s day had studied these scriptures. They expected a Messiah to come, to conquer and to assume rulership—and not figuratively.

Promises During the First Coming

“The Jews had understood about the Kingdom of God. They were familiar with the prophecies of Isaiah 9:6-7, of how the Messiah would come to set up the Kingdom and government of God over all the world,” Herbert W. Armstrong wrote in his autobiography. “What the Jews did not understand was that Jesus’s first coming, as a babe born of the virgin Mary, was to qualify, by resisting and conquering Satan, to replace Satan on the throne of the Earth as well as to announce that Kingdom to appear some 1,900 years later. And to pay with His own life’s blood for the penalty of human sins.”

This is why the Jews opposed Jesus so bitterly: They understood that the Kingdom of God was a real kingdom, just as the Roman Empire was a real kingdom, and they thought He would actually overthrow the Romans! Yet they rejected Him as the Christ. By contrast, today’s Christians accept that Jesus of Nazareth was the Christ—yet they reject or deny that He is returning to rule a real kingdom!

Read what an angel prophesied to Mary in Luke 1:30-33 when telling her she would be the mother of God’s child. The Son of God miraculously becoming the Son of man (verse 31) has occurred; this obviously applies to Jesus Christ’s first coming. He has not received the throne of David and begun His never-ending reign—yet.

See what Jesus Himself said and showed about His Second Coming in Matthew 16:27-28. Jesus was standing right there with them, yet He said He would come in glory in the future. This leads right into the transfiguration in Matthew 17, where He revealed Himself in His glorified state (that is what He referred to in Matthew 16:28). His disciples clung to that vivid vision for the rest of their lives! The transfiguration ended, He returned to His normal human appearance for the rest of His human life, and He was tortured and murdered as though He were a criminal, rather than being transfigured and becoming a mighty ruler.

Read Matthew 17:10-11 to see what Jesus emphasized to His disciples immediately after this vision. The scribes and other Jews were looking for the Messiah and the establishment of His rule on Earth. They knew that scriptures regarding this event prophesied that the Messiah would come only after a messenger fulfilled a role similar to that of Elijah (Malachi 3:1; 4:5-6). Jesus affirmed that when He came in power and glory to establish God’s Kingdom, He would indeed be preceded by a messenger, an end-time “Elijah.” (This would take place some 1,900 years later.) He also noted something the disciples and other Jews had overlooked: John the Baptist had fulfilled that messenger role before His first coming (Matthew 17:12). (Learn about the end-time fulfillment of this crucial prophecy in our free booklet A Pivotal Sign of the End Time.)

Note Jesus’s promise to His disciples in John 14:2-3 that He would go away and then return. Remember, God cannot lie. Read what Jesus told the high priest trying Him for sedition in Mark 14:62. This too is a firm statement—“you will see”—invoking the same imagery that the disciples saw.

Read Jesus’s prophecy in Matthew 24:3-31 concerning His return and the events that precede it. Here Christ gave the overall time frame of His Second Coming. Christ wants us thinking about and watching for this. Focus on this, and you will keep your perspective as you await that return. We need to study these prophecies to become increasingly excited and convicted that Christ’s return is at hand!

In this Olivet prophecy, Christ showed that just before His return, the world would enter a time of great crisis: an intensification of war, earthquakes, famines and pestilence. Our world will be just as evil as it was before the Flood, when “God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” (Genesis 6:5). This describes our world today—though many people, including many Christians, think man’s society and civilization are still good, or at least fixable.

The reality is that Jesus Christ must return soon or there would not be a human being left alive! As He says in Matthew 24:22, if those days are not “cut short, not a soul would be saved alive …” (Moffatt translation). Christ’s Second Coming will punctuate a time of unprecedented upheaval with an even greater shock! (verse 27).

Read verse 14 to know when this will happen. Jesus gave a tremendous sign of the timing of His Second Coming. Yet similar to His first coming, even most religious people who read the Bible missed it: “And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.” The true gospel was lost shortly after His first coming and was not preached around the world until the end time—by an end-time Elijah. This has happened—and you need to know about it and prove it for yourself! (This prophecy, too, is explained in A Pivotal Sign of the End Time.)

Read an additional sign in verses 32-36. Only the Father knows the precise time He will send His Son to Earth, but Christ said true Christians could and should know when it is “at the doors.” That is why He made so many statements in the Old Testament and during His ministry to indicate the time frame of His return. Consider all these statements about Christ’s coming, then look honestly at world events. Who can deny that the parable of the fig tree applies today?

Read Christ’s admonition in verses 42-51 regarding what He expects from you before His coming. End-time prophecy helps you prepare for Christ’s return. Studying prophecy and world events helps you maintain a sense of urgency in your life. Watch the events Christ tells true Christians to watch, and you will become better prepared for His return. Only an “evil servant” would say or think that Christ’s return is far into the future (verse 48). Christ says some of His own servants have become drunk spiritually. They have become so evil they are smiting their fellow servants. A servant who says “my lord delays his coming” has fallen back into the ways of this world.

Christ Himself repeatedly confirmed the promise of His coming. He gave details to watch for to keep us in that vigilant posture. He told us to beware a casual attitude about it. His whole ministry focused on announcing the arrival of that future Kingdom He will establish! Yet most Christians today never really discuss that vital purpose for His first coming! That is why they are so confused, casual and wrong about His Second Coming.

The Apostles’ Hope

After His crucifixion, Jesus reappeared to be with His disciples over a period of several weeks. Finally, though, Jesus was taken into heaven—and two angelic messengers confirmed His promise to the disciples. Read this in Acts 1:9-11. They said He would return to the same place that He ascended from and in the same manner, the manner previewed in the transfiguration.

Christ gave His disciples this hope to motivate them. They were sure of His return. You see references throughout the epistles to the certainty of the Second Coming. These men had faith in that promise. They lived for that future.

The Apostle Paul, who was called well after Christ’s death, resurrection and ascension, also had this glowing hope. Read his wonderful description in 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17. Read the details he gave in 1 Corinthians 15. Note verses 22-23 about a resurrection of “they that are Christ’s at his coming,” and the description of that resurrection “at the last trump” in verses 51-54.

True Christians should long for Christ’s triumphant return. We should be those who “love his appearing” (2 Timothy 4:8). In Titus 2:13, the Apostle Paul wrote, “Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ.” Paul was looking for that “blessed hope” even though the “glorious appearing” of Christ would not come for some two millennia! Surely we today, 2,000 years closer to that event, should have even more fervent anticipation.

Read another crucial prophetic milestone preceding Christ’s return that God reveals in 2 Thessalonians 2:1-3. This dramatic “falling away” within God’s true Church has happened in recent years. (This is thoroughly explained in our free book Malachi’s Message to God’s Church Today.) This should also strengthen our conviction that our Savior is almost here.

The other apostles shared Paul’s belief. Read 2 Peter 3:1-13, where the chief apostle directly addressed those who, more than 2,000 years after His first coming, deny that Jesus Christ will come again. Yes, scoffers abound, but God’s people cling to His promises in full assurance of faith. For them, revelation from God truly is the “more sure word of prophecy” (2 Peter 1:19).

Read where the Apostle John, in 1 John 3:1-2, affirms that “he shall appear” and describes what else will occur at that time. Is it enough to avoid scoffing and to sincerely believe in the promise of Christ’s return and the establishment of the literal Kingdom of God on Earth? Read verse 3 for the answer. Hope in Christ’s return should motivate you to purify yourself to get ready! Real faith produces obedience, direction, urgency and zeal for God’s Kingdom. It changes you.

As deeply as John believed, surely his excitement for God’s soon-coming Kingdom swelled to bursting when he was given the prophetic visions of the book of Revelation. Read the proclamation he heard from heavenly voices in Revelation 11:15. Read John’s description of the majestic vision of the Second Coming he saw with his own eyes in Revelation 19:11-21. God gave John that vision and ensured that he recorded it so that, to this day, we can hold fast that spectacular hope!

Look to the Future

During World War ii, Viktor Frankl survived four concentration camps, including Auschwitz. He said one lesson he learned was that it is crucial to be oriented toward a future goal. “The prisoner who had lost faith in the future—his future—was doomed,” he wrote. “He simply gave up.”

Frankl told the story of a man who had a vivid dream that he would be liberated on March 30, 1945. “When he told me about his dream, he was still full of hope and convinced that the voice of his dream would be right. But as the promised day drew nearer, the war news which reached our camp made it appear very unlikely that we would be free on the promised date. On March 29, he suddenly became ill and ran a high temperature. On March 30, the day his prophecy had told him that the war and suffering would be over for him, he became delirious and lost consciousness. On March 31, he was dead. To all outward appearances, he had died of typhus.

“The sudden loss of hope and courage can have a deadly effect. The ultimate cause of my friend’s death was that the expected liberation did not come and he was severely disappointed.”

Yes, your state of mind—including your amount of courage and hope—is connected to your physical health. But it is all the more closely connected to your spiritual health.

False Christians and even many true Christians have lost hope and lost focus on the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. They think, My Lord delays His coming (Luke 12:45). Some have gotten too convinced of a personal view of a prophetic timetable that ends up failing. This has a devastating effect on our spiritual health. Disappointment is deadly. Satan can use it as a deadly weapon.

True Christians must have greater faith than that!

“It is a peculiarity of man that he can only live by looking to the future,” Frankl wrote. “And this is his salvation in the most difficult moments of his existence, although he sometimes has to force his mind to the task” (emphasis added).

God wants us to “live by looking to the future.” Even as the world grows ever gloomier with injustice and tyranny, we can cling to the many promises and prophecies God has preserved for us of a just and righteous kingdom. As we watch despair and hopelessness intensify, we can set our minds on this vision. And we can follow Christ’s admonition to pray daily for the restoration of God’s government on Earth: “Thy kingdom come” (Matthew 6:10).

This hope should saturate and govern our minds continually. Jesus Christ will return—and all signs point to it being very soon!